ISTANBUL: Aston Villa ended their 30-year trophy drought in style as spectacular goals from Youri Tielemans and Emiliano Buendia inspired a 3-0 win against Freiburg in the Europa League final on Wednesday.

Unai Emery’s side took the lead late in the first half in Istanbul through Tielemans’ thunderous volley. Buendia increased Villa’s advantage with a sublime curler seconds before the interval.

Morgan Rogers’ second-half goal finished off the outclassed Germans, sealing Villa’s first silverware since the 1996 League Cup and their first major European prize for 44 years.

That famous European Cup final upset of Bayern Munich in 1982, secured by Peter Withe’s goal in Rotterdam, has stood as the most iconic moment in Villa’s 152-year history.

But Villa’s current stars were determined to follow in the footsteps of the club’s golden generation.

Now Tielemans, Buendia, John McGinn and company can share the rarified air previously reserved for Withe, Tony Morley, Dennis Mortimer, Nigel Spink and the rest of the Class of ‘82.

Fittingly, with Withe and Mortimer watching from the stands, Villa crushed Freiburg while wearing white shirts instead of their traditional claret and blue kit — just as they did against Bayern.

Villa’s long-awaited continental conquest was the latest Europa League masterclass for Emery, who has now won the tournament five times after victories with Sevilla in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and Villarreal in 2021.

“This final is the confirmation about how we are progressing,” Emery told TNT. “Europe gave us a lot.”

Emery said this week that he didn’t feel like the “king” of the Europa League, but his team’s coronation got the royal seal of approval from Villa fan Prince William, who was celebrating along with around 20,000 ecstatic supporters in the Besiktas Stadium.

“Amazing night!! Huge congratulations to all the players, team, staff and everyone connected to the club! 44 years since the last taste of European silverware!” William said on X. “With this manager in charge, anything is possible.”

Hollywood actor Tom Hanks, another famous Villa fan, joined the party, sending a good luck message to the team before kick-off.

It has been a memorable finish to the campaign for Villa, who sealed qualification for next season’s Champions League with a win against Liverpool last week.

Villa’s success over the last six days would have been impossible to imagine when they started the season with a run of six matches without a win.

Their maiden win this season came in the Europa League against Bologna, the first of 13 victories in 15 games in the competition that culminated in their ruthless demolition of first-time European finalists Freiburg.

Despite losing in the UEFA Conference League semi-finals in 2024, and the Champions League quarter-finals and FA Cup semi-finals last year, Emery was convinced Villa would eventually cast off their ‘nearly men’ tag.

The 54-year-old Spaniard’s unshakable faith has been rewarded.

The Europa League triumph underlined Villa’s impressive renaissance since Emery took charge in October 2022 with the club languishing just three points above the relegation zone.

Relegated to the second tier in 1987 and 2016 and beaten in their previous four domestic finals prior to arriving in Istanbul, Villa have endured some torrid times since winning the European Cup.

Those miserable memories were banished forever on an unforgettable night on the banks of the Bosphorus.

Their was a scare for Villa before the match as goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez broke his finger during the warmup.

But the pain couldn’t stop the 2022 World Cup winner with Argentina despite the risk of aggravating the injury ahead of his country’s World Cup title defence and made to two saves to lead his side to a historic triumph.

“Today I broke my finger during warm-ups, but I didn’t see it as a bad thing,” Martinez told ESPN after the match, laughing off the injury.

“I’ve never broken a finger before and every time I tried to catch the ball, the finger would just slip away in the other direction. But, these are just things you have to go through.”

Meanwhile, Freiburg coach Julian Schuster urged his players to take pride in their run to a first European showpiece even though they were left disappointed.

“Right now, there is no happiness. We lost a final. That hurts,” Schuster told reporters. “I said before the game we believed we could win. For 40 minutes we did well, and then it changed.”

Schuster said a well-worked Villa set-piece and a defensive error proved decisive before halftime.

“For the first goal, Villa executed the set-piece well; for the second it was our mistake,” he added. “At 2-0 down at the break, you see the real character of a team, and the boys did well.”

Despite the defeat, Schuster said Freiburg who had never previously gone beyond the last 16 in Europe would, in time, reflect positively on their campaign.

“It didn’t go our way in the end. In a few days we will appreciate what we achieved with our fans, but it is painful right now,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2026